Thursday, August 22, 2013

Last Summer on Earth at Mohegan Sun: Barenaked Ladies

One of my favorite cassette tapes I used to blast in my Ford Tempo had Moxy Fruvous' Bargainville on one side and Barenaked Ladies' Gordon on the other. When I thought of one Canadian band, I always thought of the other. Just like everyone I knew, I loved the live recording Rock Spectacle and Stunt, but for some reason, I'd never seen the band in person. While their new effort Grinning Streak didn't win me over the first few listens, I told myself to go into this with an open mind. Barenaked Ladies are a live band and they did not disappoint me.

Being the headliner, they had the most impressive/annoying to shoot against light of the night, but it wasn't half as bad as some of the venues I've shot in. Jim and Ed move all over the stage, making it easy to get engaging shots. The entire band jokes with each other, and it really comes through in the pictures. I particularly love the high key black and white photo of Ed, but for me, my personal favorite is the black and white shot of Kevin. I try to focus on each band member equally to find a moment in three songs where they are reaching a peak. Some musicians are not fond of photographers, so I try to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Concerts don't always allow for that direct connection between photographer and subject, but in this instance, it did. I was firing away while Kevin looked the other way, then he noticed me. He looked directly into my lens with a happy little grin as though he appreciated the fact that I wasn't with the rest of the pack of photographers shooting the front man.

I wished that I could've shot more than the first three for BNL more so than any other band because they really hit their stride in the middle of their set. The medley had amazing moments and Tyler stepped out from behind his drums in the encore to sing lead. Still, I'm happy with the pictures I got and to have finally seen BNL live. Photographing them was just icing on the cake.